Long before Russia launched its war to “denazify” Ukraine, Ukraine was trying to “decommunize” itself by eradicating Soviet symbols and traditions. When and how to celebrate the end of World War II was a key question for this campaign.
 
On a visit to Kyiv a few years ago, I witnessed Victory Day marked twice in a row: on May 8, as in Europe, and on May 9, in keeping with the Soviet tradition. This double date with history speaks more about Ukraine’s future than its past, however.
 
Those pushing to move the commemoration to May 8 argued that the Soviet-style May 9 celebrations gloss over the fact that Ukraine, a major battlefield in the war, suffered from Communism no less than it suffered from Nazism. Beyond changing the date, these activists wanted to switch the focus to remembering the victims, leaving the annual flaunting of military might to Moscow.
 
This year, Kyiv was in no mood to celebrate. Ukrainians are experiencing first-hand the same horrors of war they heard their grandparents once ascribe to the Nazis.
 
May 9 was indeed an awkward anniversary. While Russian President Vladimir Putin inspected troops on Red Square and used the celebration to justify his war against imaginary Nazis, military parades were canceled or scaled back across the post-Soviet world.
 
In Georgia, which shares Ukraine’s ambition to join the EU and has suffered its own Russian invasion in recent memory, at least one opposition party called for switching commemorations to May 8.
 
“May 9 epitomizes a false interpretation of World War II,” said Giorgi Kandelaki of the European Georgia party. “Georgia should not be part of this false interpretation because it underlies Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.”
 
Georgia’s ruling party dismissed the idea. “Of course Russia is manipulating May 9, but the would-be pro-Western forces are also manipulating May 8,” said Shalva Papuashvili, the parliamentary speaker from the Georgian Dream party, as he met World War II veterans in Tbilisi on May 9. “This day belongs to the people who made this victory happen.”
 
-Giorgi Lomsadze